Early development

During the early production stage of Rayman 3, early footage, screenshots and artwork show that development initially began with Rayman utilizing his design from Rayman 2, as opposed to the new redesign that debuted with the final game. Other early elements include unused areas, such as an underwater level, and differences with the HUD, which resembles the HUD of Rayman 2 in some early screenshots. Some screenshots appear fairly similar to the final game, but still show some differences in aesthetic and lighting. There was also several kinds of Hoodlums that were going to appear, but got scrapped from the final game.

Ghost levels

The third and fourth parts of the Bog of Murk appear to have originally been the same map, but ended up being separated. Both parts retained a prototype copy of the other where only a few gems are present, elements like meadowscrews are non-functional, and there aren't any enemies or cages. These areas can be accessed in-game with hacks or glitches.

Debugging features

There are two debugging features mistakenly left in the GameCube version of the game. The first one is in the first part of the Fairy Council: holding R + Start will cause Murfy to stop flying until the player lets go. The second is in the fourth part of the Desert of the Knaaren: pressing the same buttons will cause the text "Salle 01" (French for "Room 01") to appear in the bottom left of the screen. If the player then holds the R button and presses Up or Down on the D-Pad, the number can be changed up to 05. Holding R and pressing Left on the D-Pad will then cause Rayman to be teleported to a specific location, depending on what number was displayed.

During the final battle, Rayman had to free the Leptys from Reflux's control by breaking the mirrors directing magic rays towards him, and then destroy the sceptre by redirecting the four rays towards it.

Plums could be destroyed with a fully charged shot, spilling sticky juice around and allowing Rayman to climb onto otherwise slippery surfaces.

Permanent powers were obtained through Silver Lums. Those powers included charging Rayman's fists faster, shooting with both fists (bestowed by the ambidextrous Silver Lum), strafing, and a power called the Razibus allowing Rayman to shoot his fists further as well as hit multiple enemies (in order to use this power, Rayman had to shoot his fist when crouching).

2002 development build

Rayman Pirate-Community user DandyGuy dumped a Rayman 3 PlayStation 2 development disc online and it appears to be built on October 27, 2002. This build contains six levels each having a simple debug name and the build contains a few differences closely resembling the final game.

The level 'Intro. 10' is the first section of the Fairy Council with Murfy carrying Rayman with no arms, this version of the sections has a different voice for Murfy and he had different lines.

Instead of "End Of Cinematic, Now it's time for some action" he says "You're Too Heavy, I'm Not Going To Hold Out Much Longer!",

Instead of "Oooh, this place is crawlin’ with them." and "Aaah! They’re shootin’ at us! How original of them." he says "I Saw Everything, It's Their Chef, Andre, He Turns the Red Lums Into Hoodlums" and "If We Don't Stop Him, We'll Be Invaded!"

Instead of "Ok, you did a little better, I'm going to reward you with your first parachute jump, parachute not included!" he says "We Shook Them Off, I'll See You On The Ground"

'SK8.00' is the debug name for the first Teensie Highway which has some minor differences compared to the final game.

The landing sound effect when jumping from platform to platform uses the generic 'Boing!' sound.

When jumping from platform to platform using 'X' the player gets rewarded with a bonus and a 'X2' score multiplier followed by the Shock Rocket sound effect playing in a loop.

Some instruments in the soundtrack for the Teensie Highway are either missing or are raised or lowered in volume from the other instruments

The final segment of the Teensie Highway has an ending music track that still remains in the final game but was left unused.

'Wood. 19' Contains two segments of Clearleaf Forest, the first being the segment that introduces the player to the Shock Rocket, and the following segment involving the same segment that was used in the 2002 demo.

The Shock Rocket segment is missing cutscenes for finding the secret gems under the trap door and for opening each of the 3 steel doors. Instead Rayman just stays still for a couple of seconds.

Several of the enemies in Rayman 3 including the scrapped Xowar appeared on this early PC version loading screen.

In 2002, some platinum copies of Rayman Revolution were bundled with a demo disc of Rayman 3 and these were identified with a sticker in the front cover. There were other Rayman games games for PC that bundled the same demo too, along with a few other demos featuring different levels than the ones seen in the PlayStation 2 version. This demo featured some differences:

The demo features an earlier trailer with different music and some gameplay footage with notable differences, like fire textures from Rayman 2 and Rayman with the Rayman 2 design in the Leptys cutscene.

The loading screen of the PlayStation 2 version features a slot machine with a rotating 3D model of a Hoodmonger. A similar style of loading screen was used in the final version of Rayman M for the PlayStation 2.

Dangerous Game

This game mode is available in the Rayman 3demo, released in 2002. It contains a sequence of the third section of the Clearleaf Forest. Many differences can be found between this version and the level of the final version. Some additional differences appear in the PlayStation 2 version. Like the musics played when Rayman is in fight with the Hoodlums.
Before the first secret entrance of this sequence, it was initially expected that [[:File:Hoodlum's camp flag.png|a flag representing the Hoodlum camp]] appears. It was then replaced by a flag representing aHoodmonger. In the PC version of the demo, the pigpots' previous design is used.

This game mode is also available in the Rayman 3demo. It contains the third section of the Tower of the Leptys. Between the beta and final version of this section, the most striking differences are the sounds and musics. Some dialogs had not yet been added to the game, such as those of Globox and Rayman during the cinematic of the section. Globox does not call Rayman to get aboard his Armaguiddon but honk to get him. Also, he doesn't say anything about the enemies and do not compliment the buildings. But he is frightened at the sight of the stone gaps, when he's with Rayman in the room where they are located, Globox yells : "Ah! A mixer!". The name given to this game mode was finally used for a mini-game in the final version of Rayman 3. The name of this game mode refers to a classic, Space Invaders'.

Trailer

The trailer of the demo is different in the final version of Rayman 3.

For example, in the trailer of the demo, the old design of the Hoodmonger Officers is used. Their design looks like the Hoodmonger's one, but they wore chain mail and a kind of metal bulletproof vest.